September 2nd, 2014

This week Peter Broida discusses six cases: Rassenfoss v. Dept. of Treasury, 2014 MSPB 68 (Aug. 22, 2014): USERRA: escalator clause applies to benefits that would have been earned to a reasonable certainty, overruling prior law precluding application of the escalator clause to discretionary benefits. Putnam v. DHS, 2014 MSPB 70 (Aug. 27, 2014): (a retirement does not become involuntary because it follows on the heels of an indefinite suspension caused by a clearance suspension. Camacho v. Dept. of Army, SF-0752-10-0967-I-4 (NP Aug. 25, 2014): reaffirming the law that an appropriate accommodation for a disability will rarely if ever include a switch in supervisors. AFGE Local 2571 and VA Waco Regional Office, 67 FLRA 593 (Aug. 28, 2014): an employer's negligence constitutes the lack of good faith necessary to require liquidated damages as a component of an FLSA overtime pay award. SSA, ODAR and AFGE Local 3506, 67 FLRA 597 (Aug. 28, 2014): arbitrator's direction of a retroactive promotion in part based on a contractual procedural violation: to overcome the award on a management rights theory, the agency must show not only that the contract provision relied upon by the arbitrator constitutes a violation of management rights, but that the provision was not negotiated as an exception to management rights as either a procedure or an arrangement (impact bargaining). NTEU v. FLRA, ___F.3d___ (D.C. Cir. June 17, 2014): for employees in the competitive service, the union does not have the right to have a representative present at an OPM suitability investigation of an employee, even if the OPM inquiry is delegated to agency management to conduct.